On Wednesday, during the GSMA Mobile world Congress in Barcelona, the Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE announced that it would release a phone model that is powered by solar cells.

The phone is called the Coral-200-Solar and it has been designed and engineered by ZTE in cooperation with Digicel and Intivation. According to a representative at ZTE, the company primarily designed the phone for emerging markets, where it would be available starting June 2009.

The phone model is powered through a pack of solar cells mounted on the top of it. In a nutshell, while the technical specs of the phone are not quite detailed at this moment, analysts do not expect that the device will do many things besides voice calling and text messaging, especially considering the price tag of the phone.

Coral-200 is designed as a candybar-shaped phone. The device doesn’t impress through its design, as there are no glittery details, but the potential customers usually see the usability behind the device, rather than the design itself. The phone has a similar design with ZTE C78, a model that the manufacturer currently offers along with a subscription at MetroPCS.

Further details about ZTE’s solar-powered mobile phone are expected to come in the following weeks. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not show the phone at its booth, as well as neither Samsung did with its Blue Earth solar-powered phone.

The ZTE Coral-200-Solar seems to be one of the several solar-powered mobile phones that were unveiled at GSMA in Barcelona and that might become a new trend in the market. At the trade show, Samsung provided details about the Blue Earth mobile phone, which comes with a generous pack of solar cells on its back case. LG has also announced that it would release a solar-powered mobile phone in the near future.